Eviction Moratorium (Cong. Rec., July 31, 2021)

Summary

Page S5228 of the Senate section of the Congressional Record for July 31, 2021, under the heading Eviction Moratorium, in interleaved columns. Ms. Warren recalls calling for action a year earlier to protect renters before the moratorium's expiration and argues that the Delta variant, rising cases, hospitalizations and deaths make needless evictions a risk to public health. She quotes the CDC's statement that housing stability helps protect health and urges states to deliver emergency aid. Mr. Warner, in the other column, discusses H.R. 3684, saying he hopes the last pieces of legislative language will be finished so the bill can reach the floor for amendments and debate.

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“Eviction Moratorium (Cong. Rec., July 31, 2021).” Original at www.govinfo.gov. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/crec-crec-2021-07-31-crec-2021-07-31-pt1-pgs5228-2-4f977570ac/, SHA-256 2c74142752b89a1f5bcebf437365df8bad5f47ec3df63f13a6d07f26ce633bb2.

Full text

S5228 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE July 31, 2021
LEGISLATIVE SESSION derway in this country is historic, and The senior assistant legislative clerk
it will continue, but it has not yet proceeded to call the roll.
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reached every family. Mr. WARNER. Madam President, I
MORNING BUSINESS But the need is not just economic. ask unanimous consent that the order
Ms. WARREN. Madam President, I We are still in the throes of a public for the quorum call be rescinded.
ask unanimous consent that the Sen- health emergency that is trending in The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without
ate proceed to legislative session for a the wrong direction. Cases of COVID–19 objection, it is so ordered.
period of morning business, and that are rising. Hospitalizations and deaths H.R. 3684
upon the conclusion of my remarks, are rising. The Delta variant is more Mr. WARNER. First of all, Madam
the Senate resume executive session, contagious, threatening to spread fast- President, let me thank you and all of
as under the previous order. er among the half of the country that the floor staff and others who are here.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without remains unvaccinated. I think on a beautiful Saturday at the
objection, it is so ordered. Needlessly evicting families would end of July, we all wish, perhaps, we
f risk escalating our public health crisis. were somewhere else other than on the
The CDC understood that reality when floor of the Senate.
EVICTION MORATORIUM For the 30 years that I have been in-
it issued an eviction moratorium in
Ms. WARREN. Madam President, al- September. The Agency was clear, and volved in political discussions in Vir-
most exactly a year ago today, I stood I want to quote the language they ginia and some on an international
here and called for Congress to take ac- used: ‘‘Housing stability helps protect level, we have had President after
tion to protect renters before the expi- health.’’ President and Congress after Congress
ration of the eviction moratorium en- That’s right. Research shows that talk about the generational unmet
acted during the early weeks of the moratoriums aid in reducing infections needs in infrastructure. We have seen
pandemic. and deaths due to COVID–19. And re- our roads and bridges start to crumble.
Today, like a year ago, we are only search also shows that when eviction The estimates are that close to, de-
hours away from a fully preventable moratoriums expire, there is an associ- pending on the survey, 14,000 bridges
housing crisis. ated increase in COVID–19 and mor- are in a decaying state, and in my
The CDC’s eviction moratorium ex- tality. State, over 700 bridges. We know the
pires tonight at midnight, putting mil- Yesterday, Congresswoman CORI potholes in many of our roads and
lions of families still recovering from BUSH sent Members of Congress a let- highways. We know our airports resem-
the economic fallout of COVID–19 at ter. Congresswoman BUSH has lived ble third world nations, not the United
risk for losing their homes, from losing through eviction. She has been States of America. We know our ports
the bedrock of their safety and sta- unhoused. And I want to quote her let- have not kept up with modern tech-
bility. ter. She said: nology. We know that many of our
Right now, more than 11 million I know firsthand the trauma and devasta- shorelines are dealing with the unprec-
renters report being behind on rent. tion that comes with the violence of being edented effects of sea level rise. We
That is one out of every seven renters. evicted, and we have a responsibility to do know after COVID that high-speed
And people of color, who have been hit everything we can to prevent this trauma internet connectivity is not a nice-to-
hardest by this pandemic, are dis- from being inflicted on our neighbors and have but essential. It is something the
proportionately at risk. Nearly one- communities. Presiding Officer has taken a legisla-
quarter of Black renters report being CORI BUSH is exactly right. tive lead on.
behind on rental payments. My office has heard from so many We know that it is time to get past
Last year, Congress worked together people in Massachusetts who are terri- talking about infrastructure and fi-
to account for that staggering reality. fied about the possibility of losing nally doing something. That is why I
We provided more than $45 billion in their homes. I know that each of my have been proud to be part of this bi-
emergency rental assistance. That colleagues here must be hearing these partisan effort, working with the White
money is now finally getting into the stories. In every State in this country House, to produce a historic piece of
hands of landlords around the country. there are families sitting around their legislation, $550 billion of new spending
It is helping families who lost jobs get kitchen table right now trying to fig- over 5 years that in every category I
caught up on the missed payments. ure out how to survive a devastating, just mentioned will make historic in-
But the money is getting out too disruptive, and unnecessary eviction. vestments.
slowly. Some States and local govern- Congress has a choice to make. It is I have been a little surprised, to tell
ments opened their assistance pro- a privilege for us to represent people, you the truth, that some of our col-
grams only last month. Some hadn’t and we have a duty to exercise our leagues on the other side who were not
spent a single dollar by the beginning power on their behalf. Every Senator in part of the bipartisan group have sud-
of June. this Chamber should be grateful that denly said: No, we can’t do infrastruc-
Now that is starting to change. In they have the power right now to keep ture now. They were all for it when
June, States delivered more than $1.5 families safe. President Trump was in; now they find
billion in emergency rental assistance. My colleagues understood the stakes excuses why not.
That money went to help nearly 300,000 in March of 2020, when Congress passed I have to also say I have been a little
households, but there are still billions the CARES Act eviction moratorium bit surprised even with some of my col-
of dollars to distribute and millions of into law. They understood the stakes leagues on my side of the aisle, when
families in need. when we provided historic funding for the deal that we have structured is lit-
We have the tools, and we have the emergency rental assistance. I urge erally twice as much as where the ear-
funding. What we need is the time. them to join me now in continuing this lier negotiations were between Presi-
Look, I agree that the eviction mora- lifesaving protection as States dis- dent Biden and some of the Republican
torium is not a long-term solution, but tribute assistance to keep renters committee chairs—committee leaders.
let me be very clear: it is the right housed; to keep landlords paid; and, There has been some sense of, well,
short-term action. It is how we keep most of all, to keep families safe. you know, infrastructure—that
families safely in their homes while I yield the floor. shouldn’t be that hard to do. If it
States deliver emergency aid. It is how f wasn’t hard to do, why has it taken us
we keep families who are starting to 30 years to get to this moment?
recover from the worst economic crisis EXECUTIVE SESSION I hope—and I know we are finalizing

dlhill on DSK120RN23PROD with SENATE
of their lifetimes get back on their The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- the last couple pieces of legislative lan-
feet. ate will now resume executive session. guage—I hope that we will get that fin-
Millions of jobs have been lost, busi- Ms. WARREN. I suggest the absence ished as soon as possible so we can get
nesses are still shuttered, and childcare of a quorum. this bill on the floor, have amend-
for too many families is still a patch- The PRESIDING OFFICER. The ments, have a debate, but at the end of
work of uncertainty. The recovery un- clerk will call the roll. the day, pass this historic legislation

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